Shelley Evans wins overall at Nature Valley Grand Prix as Evelyn Stevens wins stage
- By Ben Delaney
- Published Jun. 20, 2010
- Updated Jun. 21, 2010 at 12:43 PM EDT
Kristin Armstrong, last year's winner, celebrates with Shelley Evans. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com
Shelley Evans (Peanut Butter & Co.-Twenty 12) went on the offensive Sunday on the 18-percent wall of Chilkoot Hill in the final criterium stage of the Nature Valley Grand Prix. Evelyn Stevens (HTC-Columbia) took a solo flyer with three laps to go to claim the stage win, but Evans took the overall win.
Evans’ first attack with six to go split the already shattered field, forcing yellow jersey Linda Villumsen (HTC-Columbia) out the back.
“This is a race of attrition. We knew if we kept the pressure on from the beginning, it would shatter,” Evans said. “Everyone executed exactly as we planned it.”
When Evans went, only four women were able to follow: Stevens, Colavita’s Catharine Cheatley, TIBCO’s Ruth Corset and stage 5 winner Erinne Willock (Webcor).
Behind, HTC had a few teammates driving a 15-woman chase for Villumsen.
With four to go, the chase split in half, with Villumsen on the wrong end of affairs up the narrow and fan-packed Chilkoot Hill. “I had to do some chasing, and when we reached the hill, it was hard,” Villumsen said.
The front chase caught the Evans group on the backside of the course.
As Stevens came around a corner, she saw team director Rene Wenzel give her the motorcycle hand sign for acceleration — a back twist of the wrist. Villumsen was not coming back, and HTC needed to play another card for the GC. Stevens was 23 seconds behind Evans on the overall.
So, the next time up Chilkoot, Stevens punched it and got a quick gap. Initially Cheatley and Corset tried to bridge, but they were soon reabsorbed by the Evans group.
“When Evy went, I tried to go with her,” said Corset, the Australian national champion. “There was just that little gap over the top, but I needed someone else to help me. That was a little disappointing, not being able to stick on her wheel. Then I got in a move with Cath Cheatley, and I really thought it was going to stick. But we got caught with two laps to go.”
By the final lap, Stevens had a 25-second gap to Evans.
“When we found out Linda wasn’t there, it was perfect,” Evans said. “With Evy up the road it was dangerous, but I had Mara [Abbott] with me still, and she was the best teammate today. I would not have won this race without Mara.”
Abbott kept the gas on, and when Evans hit the the foot of Chilkoot for the final time, she sprinted all-out to finish 14 seconds behind Stevens. With Villumsen coming in another 48 seconds later, Evans was again in yellow, this time for good.
“I like this course,” said Peanut Butter director Kristin Armstrong. “There wasn’t the separation at first that I wanted to have. But our plan worked — never giving up and continuing to stretch that rubberband, lap after lap. I knew that when the girls can’t go anymore, they can’t go anymore. But the minute you give up, you give everyone else a little rest. It’s only an hour, we all have that in us.”
Willock, who finished fifth on the stage to take third overall — tied for time with Corset — said she liked Nature Valley’s format of six stages in five days. “It’s a good race. The jersey switching spots four times during the week, that means it is good racing,” she said. “Today, I just got Ruth at the line. There was less than a second between us.”
FILED UNDER: News / Race Report / Road TAGS: Nature Valley Grand Prix